Down Here On The Ground - Israel-Palestine

After watching Woody Allen's Deconstructing Harry last evening for the fifth or sixth time - Hanna and Her Sisters is his best, Deconstructing Harry his second best, Interiors his third best - I started to think about things. Anyway the scenes in Harry about what is to be a Jew put me in mind of Joseph Levine's fine article on the history of the Israel-Palestine problem. I read Levine's piece shortly after it appeared in 2008. It's interesting to re-read it today in light of the Arab Spring and Israel's Prime Minister's telling its ally, the United States what it must do, and getting a Congressional standing ovation for this stunt. I am reminded of Amos Oz's comments years ago about what folks down on the ground in Israel felt about the conflict. If I recall his thought properly, and if he hasn't changed his mind, it went something like this:

The man and woman in the street knows what's right and knows what should be done. It's a bunch of old politicians trying to hold on to their jobs who are the real problem in terms of settling the conflict.

Joseph Levine, September/October 2008 issue of the Boston Review writes,

Sometimes I get the feeling that supporters of Israel who, deep down, recognize the fundamentals of the situation, refuse to acknowledge the history because they fear that if they do, all will be lost. If we really did steal their ... [Palestinians'] land, then we just have to give up any claim we have, they seem to think. So the response is to deny or repress recognition of what has happened and continues to happen. This response is dangerous and wrong-headed: dangerous because it prevents good-faith negotiations; wrong-headed because, as I emphasized above, recognizing history and acknowledging the fundamental Palestinian grievance does not automatically mandate any particular outcome to a negotiated end to the conflict.

Levine concludes,

While I favor a non-ethnic democratic state in Israel/Palestine, I don’t think this the obvious outcome of any negotiations, even if undertaken in full recognition of the history and in good faith. But whatever is now deemed the best solution will not come about if the history of the conflict is not recognized. Israelis and Jews around the world need to face this history openly and honestly. Only then can the serious debate about what is to be done finally commence. 

When I pointed out to a friend of mine that I had been blogging away, he looked at what I had set down and remarked that he'd look at most of it, but not Chomsky. I think there's something to be learned from Chomsky and Levine. Oh well.

http://bostonreview.net/BR33.5/levine.php
http://www.chomsky.info/articles/20101206.htm